Getting the Triangle Straight

Author: Scott A. Snyder, Senior Fellow for Korea Studies and Director of the Program on U.S.-Korea Policy
September 2011
Asia Foundation

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This new volume from the Japan Center for International Exchange (JCIE) offers a valuable reexamination of the trilateral interaction between China, Japan and the United States, building on efforts launched by JCIE in the late 1990s. Distinguished co-editors Gerald Curtis, Ryosei Kokubun and Wang Jisi have provided a comprehensive examination of the influence of the trilateral relationship on regional security architecture and traditional security issues, economic integration, and mutual perceptions in the relationship.

The core themes of the book revolve around Wang Jisi's observation that “the conventional wisdom among politicians and policy analysts in all three countries is that China's power and international influence will continue ascending rapidly, whereas the balance is likely to tilt toward the United States in the US-Japan leg of the equation” (38). Wang also points out that the United States and Japan still retain a decisive advantage over China when it comes to “soft power” and climate change/development issues.